Psalm 119:1-8

Walking in the Law

Psalm 119:1 NASB95

1 How blessed are those whose way is blameless, Who walk in the law of the Lord.

This Psalm begins with a blessing.

But, like all blessings in Scripture, it is not a general blessing.

It is a blessing that is specific, and here there is a clear condition that must be met in order to be blessed.

He says “How blessed are THOSE- whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord”

Now just to be clear, he is not talking about two different groups of people.

He’s not talking about a group of people over here whose way is blameless and another group over here who walk in the Law of the Lord.

What I mean by that is this-

Those whose way is blameless are those who walk in the Law of the Lord.

Those who walk in the Law of the Lord, will be those whose ways are blameless.

These two things go together. These are the same people.

A few weeks ago in 1 Peter- I told you God’s expectation of those who are His.

1 Peter 1:16 NASB95

16 because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

The question that arises out of that command- is how are we to be holy.

How are we to be blameless.

Verse 1 of Psalm 119 tells us

Walk in the Law of the Lord.

Now in context, he is speaking of the OT Law. Now we can broadly apply this I believe the all the commands of God in Scripture.

The way to keep our way blameless is to walk in the Law of the Lord.

But what does it mean to walk in the Law of the Lord.

I think this means studying the Law. We have to know the commands of the Lord in order to keep the commands of the Lord.

(Illustration- First game of T-Ball)

As many of you know I am coaching Abi’s TBall team- At the beginning of the year- I was given a rule book- that honestly I didn’t read. So when I got to the first game, the other team had on metal masks when they went on to the field.

I went over to the other coach- I said, “Come on, Brittany, you are making me look bad. I didn’t know that we had to wear those.” And She said, “Well, I’m just doing what the rule book says we have to do.”

Of course she was right. She had read the rules. She knew what had to be done. I’m left there as the coach, having led my whole team in the wrong direction.

You see the problem of not knowing the Law? When we don’t know the Law of the Lord, how can we obey it?

Its not that I hadn’t been given the rule book. It was that I had not read the rule book.

Now thats one thing when its Dixie Youth TBall. Its a completely different issue when its the Laws of God that we neglect to read.

Its not that we haven’t been given His Law. Many times its that we haven’t read it.

In order for our ways to be blameless we have to know HIS way. His Law. And His expectations.

Psalm 119:2 NASB95

2 How blessed are those who observe His testimonies, Who seek Him with all their heart.

Here he pronounces a second blessing.

This blessing is on those who observe His testimonies.

His testimonies are different that his commands.

His Law and commands are things we a re to do in obedience.

His testimonies are the truths we find about who He has told us He is.

So when we read the Bible, we are not just looking for the commands.

We are also looking for the testimonies of God.

Who does God say He is?

What is His name?

What does God love?

What does God hate?

How does God act?

What are His attributes?

We are blessed when we find these things. We are blessed when we find these things even if they make us uncomfortable. We are blessed when we find these things if they make us comfortable.

But the goal of knowing Scripture is observing what god has said about Himself.

He has revealed Himself to us in His Word.

And we find out who he is when we look there for it.

The second part of that verse is important too.

We must seek after Him with our whole heart.

Once again these two things go together.

Observe what He has said about Himself is seeking Him.

But we must not do it half-hearted.

How’s your Bible reading? Have you read your Bible this week?

Maybe this will help.

Before you read any passage, as for motivation, ask yourself, what does this passage teach me about God? go looking to find out about god in His Word and you will.

Word by Word,Line by Line, Sentence by sentence, chapter by chapter, book by book. God has revealed Himself in this book for us, but we must look with our whole heart.

Look at verse 3

Psalm 119:3 NASB95

3 They also do no unrighteousness; They walk in His ways.

The result of those who know God. They result of those who seek after God.

Is that we are faithful to walk in His ways.

We know what he hates, so we should seek to kill that which he hates in our life.

We know what he loves, so we should seek to pursue those thing which he loves with our lives.

There is a three fold purpose of reading the Word.

Knowing God- Loving God- Obeying God.

Look at verse 4.

Psalm 119:4 NASB95

4 You have ordained Your precepts, That we should keep them diligently.

God has given us His Law for our benefit. For that three fold purpose.

He hasn’t given us this Book for us to know Him and His Laws ourselves, not so that we can put another book on our shelves.

These things have been ordained by God.

And we should desire to know them and keep them.

Look at verses 5-6

Hear the desire of David’s heart-

Psalm 119:5–6 NASB95

5 Oh that my ways may be established To keep Your statutes! 6 Then I shall not be ashamed When I look upon all Your commandments.

His plea is that his ways may be established to keep His statutes!

Why?

So that when he reads them, he will not be ashamed.

This is a lofty goal.

But think about it.

What a blessing it would be to come to the Word of God having been walking in His ways, and leave encouraged to continue.

Many times, it seems that it has to encourage me to start obeying Him, rather than continuing to obey Him.

David’s desires is to not be ashamed when he looks at the Word of God.

How many times has this happened to you?

The Word of God is meant to correct us. I’m not saying that this is ever attainable. That we will ever be able to fully say that we have done as we ought to perfection.

But this is the goal.

That when we look at God’s commands, we could say, Amen, Lord let this continue in my life.

For me and I’m sure many of you, the Word of God is often a tool of correction and turning us back.

But my prayer is that our obedience would be such that at times it would be a wind at our backside pushing us further rather than a whip on our backside for us not going the way we should go.

Regardless, though we should give thanks for the wind or the whip.

Psalm 119:7 NASB95

7 I shall give thanks to You with uprightness of heart, When I learn Your righteous judgments.

Sometimes we learn of them and they correct us. Other times they encourage us. Any time, we ought to give thanks for it.

The Promise of Presence of the Law Giver

David’s desire and oath to God.

Psalm 119:8 NASB95

8 I shall keep Your statutes; Do not forsake me utterly!

I will do it Lord.

Let us begin our Bible reading in submission to His will.

What ever you say, I will do. Let that be our heart.

I believe He won’t forsake us.

We walk in His way, He will walk with us.

We keep His Law, He will keep us.